1. Connect to your router via
your browser, by inputting something called a Gateway IP Address.
a. To find your Gateway IP
Address and connect to it in Windows
·
Click Start > Run >
type 'cmd' > Click 'Enter'
·
Once the Command Prompt
window opens, type 'ipconfig /all' and hit 'Enter'
·
Locate the line labeled 'Gateway'
and make note of the number that follows. It will look similar to '192.168.1.1'
·
Open Internet Explorer (or
your favorite browser)
·
Enter the Gateway IP
Address into the address bar and click 'Enter ‘
b.
To find your Gateway IP Address
and connect to it on a Mac
·
Open your Finder and run
'Terminal' inside of Applications > Utilities
·
Once the terminal window
opens, type 'ipconfig -a' and hit 'Enter'
·
Locate the line labeled
'Gateway' and make note of the number that follows. It will look similar to
'192.168.1.1'
·
Open Safari (or your
favorite browser)
·
Enter the Gateway IP
Address into the address bar and click 'Enter'
2. Enable encryption on your
access point. Using 128-bit encryption or
higher makes your Wireless Network more secure. WEP and WPA are entirely
different encryption schemes. WEP has been proven insecure and can be cracked in few minutes using free utilities that can be downloaded from
the Internet. Using at least WPA is recommended, because it is much more
secure, but is sometimes a bit harder to set up correctly than WEP is, and
isn't completely secure. Some older access points or wireless cards do not
support WPA2. If you have one of these, it is recommended that you purchase a
newer one that supports WPA2, depending on how important you consider your
security.
3. Set the router access
password. Anybody who gains access to
the router configuration settings can disable the security you have set up. If
you forget the password, most routers have a hardware reset that will restore
all of the settings to factory defaults. The best option is to use a random sequence
of the maximum length of characters - you only have to type that once, so it is
not a big thing. When you connect to the router via LAN cable while setting it
up, you can copy and paste the password onto the router and onto your local
setting, so you never need to type it again
·
Use
a secure password . Don't
use easily guessed passwords for your WPA2 or router access passwords, such as
"ABC123", "Password", or a string of numbers in order. Use
something hard to guess that contains both upper and lowercase letters as well
as numbers. Special characters such as !@#$% are not supported by some
routers. The longer the key, the better, although the WPA2 key has a minimum
and maximum length. Try to make a little mental effort -- good passwords might
be hard to remember, but they are harder to crack.
·
If you use a weak key then even WPA and WPA2 can be
easily cracked within a day using a combination of special precomputed tables
and dictionary attacks. The best way to generate a secure key is to use an
offline random number generator or write the entire alphabet in uppercase and
lowercase and numbers 0-9 on separate pieces of paper, mix the paper up and
randomly pick up pieces and return them, mixing them up again each time; each
character you pull out becomes a character in your key. You can also try
throwing a pair of dice and using the resulting numbers as your password.
4. Change the Service Set
Identifier (the network name or "SSID") from the default to something
unique. A
default SSID indicates to hackers that the network was set up by a novice and
that other options (such as the password) are also left as the default. Use a
name you can remember and identify, as the SSID has no influence on the
security of your network (not even if you choose not to broadcast it).
5. Create Machine AddressFilter List on a Home Router on your Access Point or router. A MAC (not to be
confused with the computer model 'Mac') address is a code unique to every
wireless networking card in existence. Find the MAC Address of Your Computer filtering
will register the hardware MAC Address of your networked devices, and only
allow devices with known MAC Addresses to connect to your network. However,
hackers Spoof a MAC Address and still
enter your network, so MAC address filtering should not be used in place of
proper WPA2 encryption.
6. Don't disable the 'SSID
Broadcast'. Do not disable the 'SSID
Broadcast' feature of your Access Point or router. This seems counter-intuitive, but
it is actually a bad idea. Although this would make your network invisible to
your neighbors, any determined hacker can still sniff out your SSID; and you
are implicitly forcing your computer to shout out your SSID anywhere you are,
while it is trying to connect to it. Anyone could then impersonate your router
with that SSID, and get your credentials that way.
7. Disable remote login. The first router worm brute
forces its way into the router in this manner. Most default usernames are set
to Admin. It isn't hard for a virus/worm to crack the password if the username
is known. The good thing is that routers normally have this disabled by
default. Be sure to confirm that it is disabled when you first set up your
router and periodically thereafter. If you need to update your router setting
remotely, only set up access for the time you are going to be connected.
8. Disable wireless administrating. Finally, change the setting
that allows administrating the router through a wireless connection to 'off'
(meaning that you need to connect with a LAN cable for administration). This
disables any wireless hacking into the router.
